Lee (Casey Affleck) has to return home when he gets the news that his big brother has died. Unbeknownst to him, his brother has left him guardianship of his son Patrick (Lucas Hedges).

Manchester by the Sea is a story about grief and that life’s complications mean that happy ever afters are hard to come by. Casey Affleck has always been exceptional at moody introversion and he uses this skill to carve a character struggling to stay afloat whilst charged with the care of another person. He rightly has won acting awards already for this role and is favourite to pick up an Oscar this February.

The film is powerful and raw and revolves around little moments and conversations between people. Nothing extraordinary happens but you start to care about these people and their pain. But in the end what you will be thinking about is Affleck’s haunting performance.